Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

What Will I Learn?

In this lesson, you will learn to:
Describe the structure of a PL/SQL
block
Identify the different types of PL/SQL
blocks
Identify PL/SQL programming
environments
Create and execute an anonymous
PL/SQL block
Output messages in PL/SQL

Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Why Learn It?

This lesson introduces the PL/SQL block
structure, the basic unit in PL/SQL. All
PL/SQL programs are comprised of blocks,
so you will be using blocks a lot! You will
learn the structure of a PL/SQL block and
create one kind of block: an anonymous
block.
After learning about the different
environments you can use to develop your
PL/SQL programs, you will also begin
coding PL/SQL in the Application Express
development environment.

Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Tell Me/Show Me
PL/SQL Block Structure
A PL/SQL block consists of three sections:
Declarative (optional): The declarative section begins with the
keyword DECLARE and ends when your executable section starts.
Executable (mandatory): The executable section begins with the
keyword BEGIN and ends with END. Observe that END is terminated
with a semicolon. The executable section of a PL/SQL block can in
turn include any number of nested PL/SQL blocks.
Exception handling (optional): The exception section is nested
within the executable section. This section begins with the keyword
EXCEPTION.

Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Tell Me/Show Me
PL/SQL Block Structure (continued)
DECLARE (Optional)
Variables, cursors, user-defined exceptions
BEGIN (Mandatory)
- SQL statements
- PL/SQL statements
EXCEPTION (Optional)
Actions to perform
when errors occur
END; (Mandatory)
In a PL/SQL block, the keywords DECLARE, BEGIN, and
EXCEPTION are not terminated by a semicolon. However, the
keyword END, all SQL statements, and PL/SQL statements must
be terminated with a semicolon.
Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Tell Me/Show Me
PL/SQL Block Structure (continued)
Section

Description

Declarative

Contains declarations of all variables,

(DECLARE)

constants, cursors, and user-defined

Inclusion
Optional

exceptions that are referenced in the

executable and exception sections.
Executable

Contains SQL statements to retrieve data

(BEGIN

from the database and PL/SQL statements

END;)

to manipulate data in the block. Must

Mandatory

contain at least one statement.

Exception

Specifies the actions to perform when

(EXCEPTION)

errors and abnormal conditions arise in the

Optional

executable section.
Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Tell Me/Show Me
The PL/SQL Compiler
Every program written in a high-level programming language (C,
Java, PL/SQL and so on) must be checked and translated into
binary code (ones and zeros) before it can execute. The
software that does this checking and translation is called a
compiler.
The PL/SQL compiler executes automatically when needed. It
checks not only that every word is spelled correctly, but also that
any referenced database objects (such as tables) exist, and that
the user has the necessary privileges on them.

Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Tell Me/Show Me
Block Types
A PL/SQL program comprises one or more blocks. These blocks
can be entirely separate or nested within another.
There are three types of blocks that can make up a PL/SQL
program. They are:

Anonymous blocks
Procedures
Functions

Subprograms

Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Tell Me/Show Me
Anonymous Blocks
Anonymous blocks:
Unnamed blocks
Not stored in the database
Declared inline at the point in an
application where they are executed
Compiled each time the application is
executed
Passed to the PL/SQL engine for
execution at run time
We cannot invoke or call an
anonymous block because they do not
have names and do not exist after they
are executed
Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

[DECLARE]

BEGIN
--statements
[EXCEPTION]
END;

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Tell Me/Show Me
Examples of Anonymous Blocks
1. No Declaration or exception sections, execution only
BEGIN
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('PL/SQL is easy!');
END;

2. Declaration and execution sections, but no exception section

DECLARE
v_date DATE := SYSDATE;
BEGIN
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(v_date);
END;

Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

10

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Tell Me/Show Me
Examples of Anonymous Blocks
3. Declaration and exception sections
DECLARE
v_country_name VARCHAR2(15);
v_location
VARCHAR2(15);
BEGIN
SELECT country_name, location
INTO v_country_name, v_location
FROM countries WHERE country_id=?;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE ('The country name is:
'||v_country_name)||' and is located in
'||v_location||'.') ;
EXCEPTION
WHEN TOO_MANY_ROWS THEN
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (' Your select statement retrieved
multiple rows. Consider using a cursor.');
END;
Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

11

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Tell Me/Show Me
Subprograms
Subprograms:
Are named PL/SQL blocks
Are stored in the database
Can be invoked whenever you
want to depending on your
application
Can be declared as procedures
or as functions
Procedure: performs an action
Function: computes and returns
a value

PROCEDURE name
IS
--variable declaration(s)
BEGIN
--statements
[EXCEPTION]
END;

FUNCTION name
RETURN datatype
--variable declaration(s)
IS
BEGIN
--statements
RETURN value;
[EXCEPTION]
END;

Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

12

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Tell Me/Show Me
Examples of Subprograms:
1. Procedure to print the current date
CREATE PROCEDURE print_date IS
v_date VARCHAR2(30);
BEGIN
SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'Mon DD, YYYY')
INTO v_date
FROM DUAL;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(v_date);
END;

2. Function to return the number of characters in a string

CREATE FUNCTION num_characters (p_string IN VARCHAR2)
RETURN INTEGER IS
v_num_characters INTEGER;
BEGIN
SELECT LENGTH(p_string) INTO v_num_characters
FROM DUAL;
RETURN v_num_characters;
END;
Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

13

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Tell Me/Show Me
Program Constructs
The following table outlines a variety of different PL/SQL program
constructs that use the basic PL/SQL block. The constructs are
available based on the environment in which they are executed.

Application packages

Database Server
Constructs
Stored procedures or
functions
Stored packages
Database triggers

Application triggers

Object types

Tools Constructs
Anonymous blocks
Application procedures
or functions

Object types

Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

14

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Tell Me / Show Me
PL/SQL Programming Environments
There are many tools that provide an environment for developing
PL/SQL code. Oracle provides several tools that can be used to
write PL/SQL code. Some of the Oracle development tools are:
SQL*Workshop

A component of Application
Express

SQL*Plus

A command-line application

Jdeveloper &
SQL Developer

GUI integrated development

environments (IDEs)

iSQL*Plus

A browser based development

environment

Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

15

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Tell Me / Show Me
PL/SQL Programming Environments: iSQL*Plus
iSQL*Plus: iSQL*Plus is a browser-based interface to SQL*Plus.
You can connect to a local or remote database by using
iSQL*Plus. It allows you to perform all the operations that you
can perform with the command-line version of SQL*Plus.

Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

16

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Tell Me/Show Me
PL/SQL Programming
Environments: Oracle JDeveloper
JDeveloper is a Windows-based
application.
Using JDeveloper you can create,
edit, test, and debug PL/SQL.
The JDeveloper Code Editor assists
in PL/SQL code development by
offering:
Different colors for syntactical
components of the PL/SQL
language
Features to locate procedures
and functions in supplied
packages
Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Edit

Run

17

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Tell Me/Show Me
PL/SQL Programming Environments: Oracle Application
Express
Oracle Application Express is a browser-based web application
environment that offers a SQL Workshop component.

Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

18

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Tell Me/Show Me
Developing with SQL Workshop
When you log in to Oracle Application Express, and choose SQL
Workshop, you can choose to use the SQL Commands option to
use the SQL command line editor or you can choose the SQL
Scripts option to work within the Script Editor.

Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

19

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Tell Me/Show Me
SQL Commands
You can use SQL
Commands to enter and
run a single SQL
statement or a single
PL/SQL block.
A SQL script can contain
one or more SQL
statements and/or
PL/SQL blocks. Use
SQL Scripts to enter
and run multi-statement
scripts.
Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

20

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Tell Me/Show Me
Using DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE
Look at this simple PL/SQL block and its output:

How can we display the result ?

Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

21

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Tell Me/Show Me
Using DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (continued)
Lets add a call to DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE:

Now we can see the result !

Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

22

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Tell Me/Show Me
Using DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (continued)
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE allows us to display results so that we
can check that our block is working correctly. It allows us to
display one character string at a time, although this can be
concatenated. Here are two more examples:
DECLARE
v_emp_count
NUMBER;
BEGIN
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('PL/SQL is easy so far!');
SELECT COUNT(*) INTO v_emp_count FROM employees;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(There are ||v_emp_count|| rows
in the employees table);
END;

Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

23

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Tell Me/Show Me
Terminology
Key terms used in this lesson include:
Anonymous PL/SQL block
Compiler
Subprograms
Procedures
Functions

Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

24

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Summary
In this lesson, you learned to:
Describe the structure of a PL/SQL
block
Identify the different types of PL/SQL
blocks
Identify PL/SQL programming
environments
Create and execute an anonymous
PL/SQL block
Output messages in PL/SQL

Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

25

Creating PL/SQL Blocks

Try It/Solve It
The exercises in this lesson cover
the following topics:
Describing the structure of a
PL/SQL block
Identifying the block types of
PL/SQL
Identifying PL/SQL
programming environments
Creating and executing an
anonymous PL/SQL block
Outputting messages in PL/SQL

Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

26